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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us April 25, 2005 I-5 construction will be joined by a facelift for Highway 99, so getting north from Ashland will be a work in progress By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings Construction on two roads heading north out of Ashland will extend into the summer, and officials with the Oregon Department of Transportation and the Oregon State Police are reminding motorists to slow down and pay attention. Road work along Interstate 5 between Ashland and Medford is expected to continue into September, although paving operations should be done before the Fourth of July. Photos by Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings “There’s probably more work that’s going on at this time than there was (in years past),” said Tim Fletcher, the ODOT project manager for the Interstate 5 repaving, who explained the surge in construction is the result of state funding being available. Current rebuilding and repaving work on Interstate 5 from Ashland to Medford, which began in February, will continue into September. Sometime in August, work to modernize Highway 99 in Talent between Rapp Road and Colver Road will break ground. The Talent project will add gutters, curbs, sidewalks and enclosed drainage to the roadway, as well as to widening the shoulders of the road for bicycle lanes and adding in a raised median to sections of Highway 99. Although the two Oregon Transportation Investment Act-funded projects bump up against one another, ODOT officials don’t think drivers will experience delays on both roads at the same time. “There really should be minimal conflict between the two projects,” Fletcher said. “There may be some incidental work happening on the interstate (when work in Talent begins) but nothing that will detour traffic.” Originally, ODOT officials had expected I-5 work to end earlier in the summer to avoid simultaneous construction with the Talent project and not inconvenience summer travelers. They are not sure why LTM, the company contracted for the I-5 work, had to push back the finish date. “We’re trying to get a response back from them,” Fletcher said. ODOT-sponsored radio spots have been reminding drivers about the construction and delays, which vary between a few minutes and a half-hour, before peak driving hours. The media campaign tells motorists that workers are trying to finish the roadwork by summer. Day-time lane closures should end in early June, according to Fletcher, when work will be shifted to the nighttime hours. Major repaving, which will add six inches of new asphalt on the roadway, should be completed by July 4. “When people are commuting between Medford and Ashland, the complexion of the interstate is going to change,” said Gary Leaming, the ODOT public information specialist, explaining the road will look different from today. “That’s something I think the public should be aware of.” Lane closures shift up and down the interstate as workers pull out defective concrete and put in new rebar. Although signs warning motorists of construction are situated as far as three miles from the area where lanes merge together, 14 traffic accidents — including a fatal rear-ender on March 11 — have occurred in the construction zone since work began. According to Oregon State Police Lt. Tanya Henderson, drivers have slowed down since a 49-year-old La Center, Wash., man died when the yellow West Coast Paper delivery van he was driving slammed into a single-trailer semi-truck near milepost 18 on Interstate 5 northbound. Statewide, five people have died in construction zone crashes this year. Traffic-related fatalities in construction areas have been downward trend since 1997, according to ODOT. In 2002, the last year of complete data on the ODOT Web site, five traffic-related deaths occurred in construction zones. There were six deaths in work zones in both 2000 and 2001. Nine of the accidents in or near the I-5 construction zone since work began resulted in traffic citations for careless driving, following too close and driving while intoxicated. Several drivers have called into complaints about people speeding, driving recklessly and people using the shoulder of the road or the closed lane to pass in the construction zone. OSP always attempts to have one patrol in the construction zone, however, budget cuts have limited the number of troopers on duty. “There’s times in our patrol schedule when we only have one trooper on patrol in Jackson County,” Henderson said, who encouraged local drivers to plan ahead, be patient and slow down. “It comes down to people are either late or they’re just impatient.” Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 3019 or [email protected]. 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